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HIS wicked sense of humour and cheeky one-liners have made rugby union star Nick “Honey Badger” Cummins a cult hero — but one thing he does take seriously is his health.

In the course of his travels around the world as an elite athlete, Nick has learned a lot about diet and exercise and has returned to Australia with a new focus on not only sporting performance but also wellbeing.

“Travelling worked wonders for me,” he said. “When you’re with your own thoughts, away from distractions, life comes into perspective. You get more understanding, more balance and direction in life.

“You also suss out where we are going wrong with our health. Us Aussie blokes and sheilas, we’re not the healthiest, our weight’s crept up a bit and we need to take accountability for that.

“I lived in Japan for a couple of years and they’ve got the highest longevity rate in the world. You look at the people there and you can’t tell if they’re 20 or 50. And then you look at what they gnaw into, and it’s a lot of soups, green vegetables and raw fish.

“Being healthy is 80 per cent what you put in your guts and sometimes our education about that is pretty average. There’s a lot of carry-on that gets thrown about by big corporations to make good coin, and they jam a whole lot of sugar into the food, which is damaging to our bodies.”

Camera IconThe “Honey Badger” is hoping to motivate people through his Facebook page.Picture: News Corp Australia, John Fotiadis

As well as using the lessons he has learnt to improve his own health and fitness, Nick is keen to pay it forward while he’s back on home turf.

“I’ve got a bit of a passion to see people get fit and I believe most people just need a bit of encouragement and all of a sudden they feel the support and they reach their goals and then they help their friends also get fit.

“This is why on my Facebook page I try to help motivate people and have been doing little training sessions. It’s a good feeling when someone shows you their after pic and you see the smile on their dial.”

The Honey Badger’s biggest diet tips are:

Mix it up

“Change up your colours of your vegies and fruit to get all the different nutrients you need for optimal health, and you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.”

Skip the cereal

“If you’re a four-year-old and you like sugar then, yeah, cereal is a good gig, but otherwise we need to grow up and make healthier decisions.”

EAT YOUR FRUIT

“When you juice fruit you take out the fibre, which is the delivery system for the sugar. Without the fibre your body can’t really deal with it, so if you’re going to eat something, eat it the natural way and all the goodness with it.”

Camera IconKeep it fresh, natural so you get all the goodness with it.Picture: News Corp Australia, John Fotiadis

NO GYM REQUIRED

After playing back-to-back seasons in Australia and Japan for several years, Nick is giving his body some well-deserved R & R and focusing on exercising for fun until he gets the fire back in his belly.

“I’m keeping fit with a bit of body weight training in the park. Every second day I’ll try and get a sweat on, a bit of lactic acid. It’s only a few minutes but it does the job,” he said.

“Body weight training can give you a hell of a workout, more than you get going to the gym, and you can do whatever you feel like. Your imagination is the only thing that limits you.”